Learn it, Live it, Teach it, Embed it

Student wellbeing has always been a major priority for St Mark's Anglican Community School. One of the main components of student wellbeing is Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). Whilst over the years the School has run SEL programs, feedback from our community has identified the need for a more consistent approach to our SEL programs, particularly the importance of developing a common language across a K-12 School.

To this end St Mark’s introduced the RULER Approach in 2017. The Approach originates from Yale University’s Centre for Emotional Intelligence.

RULER is an acronym for Recognising, Understanding, Labelling, Expressing and Regulating emotions. There has been a lot of research conducted in testing the validity of the social and emotional learning. Teaching the social and emotional skills contribute to better social and emotional adjustment and higher academic achievement.

Students participating in this approach perform better in school and on standardized tests. Social and emotional learning helps students and teachers to develop skills that will maximise their full potential – academically, socially, and emotionally.

The Charter - The charter is a collaboration between the students and teacher in age and ability-appropriate ways to agree a charter for a rights-respecting classroom. The charter is not about coming up with a list of rules; it is about creating an environment where everyone feels secure and valued.

Mood Meter – Students identify and label emotions, they learn to expand their emotional vocabulary, replacing basic feeling words with more sophisticated terms. Students are encouraged to map their emotions on a metre when feeling challenged. It encourages students to pay attention to where their emotions are and keep in check to be able to be proactive, not reactive.

Meta-Moment – Students press the ‘pause’ button to think about ineffective responses and with practice, replace unhelpful and ineffective responses with productive and empowering responses in a challenging situation. The Approach is nurturing students to make better choices, build healthier relationships and experience greater well-being.

Blueprint – Managing conflict effectively, developing empathy, considering other people’s feelings and identifying solutions through collaboration are the basis for the Blueprint. Creating safer and more productive classrooms is where the science of wellbeing and flourishing meets best practice teaching and learning.